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By DAVE EGGERS
Dave Eggers is the author of eight books, including, most recently, ''The Circle,'' to be published next month, from which this has been adapted. He is the founder and editor of McSweeney's.
Illustrations by Christoph Niemann
September 22, 2013
An audio version of this excerpt, as read by the actor Dion Graham.
My God, Mae thought. It's heaven.
The campus was vast and rambling, wild with Pacific color, and yet the smallest detail had been carefully considered, shaped by the most eloquent hands. On land that had once been a shipyard, then a drive-in movie theater, then a flea market, then blight, there were now soft green hills and a Calatrava fountain. And a picnic area, with tables arranged in concentric circles. And tennis courts, clay and grass. And a volleyball court, where tiny children from the company's day care center were running, squealing, weaving like water. Amid all this was a workplace, too, 400 acres of brushed steel and glass on the headquarters of the most influential company in the world. The sky above was spotless and blue.
Mae was making her way through all of this, walking from the parking lot to the main hall, trying to look as if she belonged. The walkway wound around lemon and orange trees, and its quiet red cobblestones were replaced, occasionally, by tiles with imploring messages of inspiration. "Dream," one said, the word laser-cut into the stone. "Participate," said another. There were dozens: "Find Community." "Innovate." "Imagine." She just missed stepping on the hand of a young man in a gray jumpsuit; he was installing a new stone that said, "Breathe."
On a sunny Monday in June, Mae stopped in front of the main door, standing below the logo etched into the glass above. Though the company was less than six years old, its name and logo — a circle surrounding a knitted grid, with a small 'c' in the center — were already among the best known in the world. There were more than 10,000 employees on this, the main campus, but the Circle had offices all over the globe and was hiring hundreds of gifted young minds every week. It had been voted the world's most admired company four years running.
Mae wouldn't have thought she had a chance to work at such a place but for Annie. Annie was two years older, and they roomed together for three semesters in college, in an ugly building made habitable through their extraordinary bond, something like friends, something like sisters — or cousins who wished they were siblings and would have reason never to be apart. Their first month living together, Mae broke her jaw one twilight, after fainting, flu-ridden and underfed, during finals. Annie had told her to stay in bed, but Mae went to the Kwik Trip for caffeine and woke up on the sidewalk, under a tree. Annie took her to the hospital and waited as they wired her jaw and then stayed with Mae, sleeping next to her, in a wooden chair, all night, and then at home, for days, had fed Mae through a straw. It was a fierce level of commitment and competence that Mae had never seen from someone her age or near her age, and Mae was thereafter loyal in a way she'd never known she could be.
While Mae was still at Carleton, meandering between majors, from art history to marketing to psychology — getting her degree in psych with no plans to go further in the field — Annie had graduated, gotten her M.B.A. from Stanford and was recruited everywhere, but particularly at the Circle, and had landed here days after graduation. Now she had some lofty title — Director of Ensuring the Future, Annie joked — and had urged Mae to apply for a job. Mae did so, and though Annie insisted that she pulled no strings, Mae was sure Annie had, and she felt indebted beyond all measure. A million people, a billion, wanted to be where Mae was at this moment, entering this atrium, 30 feet high and shot through with California light, on her first day working for the only company that really mattered at all.
She pushed open the heavy door. The front hall was as long as a parade, as tall as a cathedral. There were offices everywhere above, four floors high on either side, every wall made of glass. Briefly dizzy, she looked downward, and in the immaculate glossy floor, she saw her own face reflected, looking worried. She shaped her mouth into a smile, feeling a presence behind her.
"You must be Mae."
Mae turned to find a beautiful young head floating atop a scarlet scarf and white silk blouse. "I'm Renata. Annie asked me to come get you and take you to the Renaissance."
Mae knew the company's practice of naming each portion of the campus after a historical era; it was a way to make an enormous place less impersonal, less corporate. It beat Building 3B-East, where Mae had last worked. Her final day at the public utility in her hometown had been only three weeks ago — they were stupefied when she gave notice — but already it seemed impossible she'd wasted so much of her life there. Good riddance, Mae thought, to that gulag and all it represented.
Renata led Mae into a large room the size of a basketball court, where there were 20 desks, all different, all carved from blond wood into desktops of organic shapes. They were separated by dividers of glass and arranged in groups of five, like petals on a flower. None were occupied.
"You're the first here," Renata said, "but you won't be alone for long. Each new Customer Experience area tends to fill pretty quickly. And you're not far from all the more senior people." And here she swept her arm around, indicating about a dozen offices surrounding the open space. Each was walled in glass, revealing the occupants — all of the supervisors slightly older, a bit more polished, preternaturally calm.
"The architects really like glass, eh?" Mae said.
Renata stopped, furrowed her brow and thought on this notion. She put a strand of hair behind her ear and said: "I think so. I can check. But first we should explain the setup and what to expect on your first real day."
Renata explained the features of the desk and chair and screen, all of which had been ergonomically perfected and could be adjusted for those who wanted to work standing up.
"You can set your stuff down and adjust your chair, and — oh, looks like you have a welcoming committee. Don't get up," she said.
Mae followed Renata's eye line and saw a trio of young faces making their way to her. A balding man in his late 20s extended his hand. Mae shook it, and he put an oversize tablet on the desk in front of her.
"Hi, Mae, I'm Rob from payroll. Bet you're glad to see me." He smiled, then laughed heartily, as if he'd just realized anew the humor in his repartee. "O.K.," he said, "we've filled out everything here. There's just these three places you need to sign." He pointed to the screen, where yellow rectangles flashed, asking for her signature.
When she was finished, Rob took the tablet and smiled with great warmth. "Thank you, and welcome aboard."
He turned and left and was replaced by a thin man in a red zippered shirt. He shook Mae's hand.
"Hi, I'm Jon. I e-mailed you yesterday about bringing your birth certificate?" His hands came together, as if in prayer.
Mae retrieved the certificate from her bag, and Jon's eyes lit up. "You brought it!" He clapped quickly, silently, and revealed a mouth of tiny teeth. "No one remembers the first time. You're my new favorite."
He took the certificate, promising to return it after he made a copy.
Behind him was a fourth staff member, this one a beatific-looking man of about 35, by far the oldest person Mae had met that day.
"Hi, Mae. I'm Brandon, and I have the honor of giving you your new tablet." He was holding a gleaming object, translucent, its edges as black and smooth as obsidian.
Mae was stunned. "These haven't been released yet."
Brandon smiled broadly. "It's four times as fast as its predecessor. I've been playing with mine all week. It's very cool."
"And I get one?"
"You already did," he said. "It's got your name on it."
He turned the tablet on its side to reveal that it had been inscribed with Mae's full name: Maebelline Renner Holland.
He handed it to her. It was the weight of a paper plate.
"Now, I'm assuming you have your own tablet?"
"I do. Well, a laptop anyway."
"Laptop. Wow. Can I see it?"
Mae pointed to it. "Now I feel like I should chuck it in the trash."
Brandon paled. "No, don't do that! At least recycle it."
"Oh, no. I was just kidding," Mae said. "I'll probably hold on to it. I have all my stuff on it."
"Good segue, Mae! That's what I'm here to do next. We should transfer all your stuff to the new tablet."
"Oh. I can do that."
"Would you grant me the honor? I've trained all my life for this very moment."
Mae laughed and pushed her chair out of the way. Brandon knelt next to her desk and put the new tablet next to her laptop. In minutes he had transferred all her information and accounts.
"O.K. Now let's do the same with your phone. Ta-da." He reached into his bag and unveiled a new phone, a few significant steps ahead of her own. Like the tablet, it had her name already engraved on the back. He set both phones, new and old, on the desk next to each other and quickly, wirelessly, transferred everything within from one to the other.
"O.K. Now everything you had on your other phone and on your hard drive is accessible here on the tablet and your new phone, but it's also backed up in the cloud and on our servers. Your music, your photos, your messages, your data. It can never be lost. You lose this tablet or phone, it takes exactly six minutes to retrieve all your stuff and dump it on the next one. It'll be here next year and next century."
They both looked at the new devices.
"I wish our system existed 10 years ago," he said. "I fried two different hard drives back then, and it's like having your house burn down with all your belongings inside."
"Thank you," Mae said.
"No sweat," Brandon said, standing up. "And this way we can send you updates for the software, the apps, everything, and know you're current. Everyone in CE has to be on the same version of any given software, as you can imagine. I think that's it. . . ." he said, backing away. Then he stopped. "Oh, and it's crucial that all company devices are password-protected, so I gave you one. It's written here." He handed her a slip of paper bearing a series of digits and numerals and obscure typographical symbols. "I hope you can memorize it today and then throw this away. Deal?"
"Yes. Deal."
"We can change the password later if you want. Just let me know, and I'll give you a new one. They're all computer-generated."
Mae took her old laptop and moved it toward her bag.
Brandon looked at it as if it were an invasive species. "You want me to get rid of it? We do it in a very environmentally friendly way."
"Maybe tomorrow," she said, "I want to say goodbye."
Brandon smiled indulgently. "Oh. I get it. O.K. then."
He gave a bow and left, and behind him she saw Annie. She was holding her knuckle up to her chin, tilting her head. "There's my little girl, grown up at last!"
After lunch and an elaborate tour of campus, Annie deposited Mae back at her desk, where a man was sitting, his posture rounded and serene.
"Jared, you lucky son of a bitch," Annie said.
The man turned, his face unlined. His hands rested patiently and unmoving in his ample lap. He smiled at Annie. "Hello, Annie," he said, closing his eyes.
"Jared will be doing your training, and he'll be your main contact here at CE. Dan's the head of the department, as you know, but your direct report is Jared. Isn't he wonderful?" Mae didn't know what to say, and Annie didn't care. This was how she always talked, always had. "Jared, you ready to get Mae started?"
"I am," he said. "Hi, Mae." He stood and extended his hand, and Mae shook it. It was soft, like a cherub's.
"It's an honor."
"Hell, yeah, it is, Jared," Annie said, squeezing Mae's shoulder. "See you after."
Annie left, and Jared retrieved another chair, offering it to Mae. They sat side by side, facing the three screens set up on her desk. "So, training time. You feel ready?"
"You need coffee or tea or anything?"
Mae shook her head. "I'm all set."
"O.K. As you know, for now you're just doing straight-up customer maintenance for the smaller advertisers. They send a message to Customer Experience, and it gets routed to one of us. Random at first, but once you start working with a customer, that customer will continue to be routed to you, for the sake of continuity. When you get the query, you figure out the answer, you write them back. That's the core of it. Simple enough in theory. So far so good?"
Mae nodded, and he went through the 20 most common requests and questions and showed her a menu of boilerplate responses.
"Now, that doesn't mean you just paste the answer in and send it back. You should make each response personal, specific. You're a person, and they're a person, so you shouldn't be imitating a robot, and you shouldn't treat them like they're robots. Know what I mean? No robots work here. We never want the customer to think they're dealing with a faceless entity, so you should always be sure to inject humanity into the process. That sound good?"
Mae nodded. She liked that: No robots work here.
"You'd be surprised at how many of the questions you'll be able to field right away," Jared continued.
"Now let's say you've answered a client's question, and they seem satisfied. That's when you send them the survey, and they fill it out. It's a set of quick questions about your service, their overall experience, and at the end they're asked to rate it. They send the questions back, and then you immediately know how you did. The rating pops up here."
He pointed to the corner of her screen, where there was a large number, 99, and below, a grid of other numbers.
"The big 99 is the last customer's rating. The customer will rate you on a scale of, guess what, 1 to 100. That most recent rating will pop up here, and then that'll be averaged with the rest of the day's scores in this next box. That way you'll always know how you're doing, recently and generally. Now, I know what you're thinking, O.K., Jared, what kind of average is average? And the answer is: If it dips below 95, then you might step back and see what you can do better. Maybe you bring the average up with the next customer, maybe you see how you might improve. Now, if it's consistently slumping, then you might have a meet-up with me to go over some best practices. Sound good?"
"It does," Mae said. "I really appreciate this, Jared. In my previous job, I was in the dark about where I stood until, like, quarterly evaluations. It was nerve-racking."
"Well, you'll love this then. If they fill out the survey and do the rating, and pretty much everyone does, then you send them the next message. This one thanks them for filling out the survey, and it encourages them to tell a friend about the experience they just had with you, using the Circle's social-media tools. Ideally they at least zing it or give you a smile or a frown. In a best-case scenario, you might get them to zing about it or write about it on another customer-service site. We get people out there zinging about their great customer-service experiences with you, then everyone wins. Got it?"
"Got it."
"O.K., let's do a live one. Ready?"
Mae wasn't, but couldn't say that. "Ready."
Jared brought up a customer request and, after reading it, let out a quick snort to indicate its elementary nature. He chose a boilerplate answer, adapted it a bit, told the customer to have a fantastic day. The exchange took about 90 seconds, and two minutes later, the screen confirmed the customer had answered the questionnaire and a score appeared: 99. Jared sat back and turned to Mae.
"Now, that's good, right? Ninety-nine is good. But I can't help wondering why it wasn't a 100. Let's look." He opened up the customer's survey answers and scanned through. "Well, there's no clear sign that any part of their experience was unsatisfactory. Now, most companies would say, Wow, 99 out of 100 points, that's nearly perfect. And I say, Exactly: it's nearly perfect, sure. But at the Circle, that missing point nags at us. So let's see if we can get to the bottom of it. Here's a follow-up that we send out."
He showed her another survey, this one shorter, asking the customer what about their interaction could have been improved and how. They sent it to the customer.
Seconds later, the response came back. "All was good. Sorry. Should have given you a 100. Thanks!!"
Jared tapped the screen and gave a thumbs-up to Mae.
"O.K. Sometimes you might just encounter someone who isn't really sensitive to the metrics. So it's good to ask them, to make sure you get that clarity. Now we're back to a perfect score. You ready to do your own?"
"I am."
They downloaded another customer query, and Mae scrolled through the boilerplates, found the appropriate answer, personalized it and sent it back. When the survey came back, her rating was 100.
Jared seemed briefly taken aback. "First one you get 100, wow," he said. "I knew you'd be good." He had lost his footing but now regained it. "O.K., I think you're ready to take on some more. Now, a couple more things. Let's turn on your second screen." He turned on a smaller screen to her right. "This one is for intraoffice messaging. All Circlers send messages out through your main feed, but they appear on the second screen. This is to make clear the importance of the messages and to help you delineate which is which. From time to time you'll see messages from me over here, just checking in or with some adjustment or news. O.K.?"
"Got it."
"Now, remember to bounce any stumpers to me, and if you need to talk, you can shoot me a message or stop by. I'm just down the hall. I expect you to be in touch pretty frequently for the first few weeks, one way or the other. That's how I know you're learning. So don't hesitate."
"I won't."
"Great. Now, are you ready to get started-started? That means I open the chute. And when I release this deluge on you, you'll have your own queue, and you'll be inundated for the next two hours, till lunch. You ready?"
Mae felt she was. "I am."
The deluge lasted a month. It was that long before Mae felt she could breathe. The days were long, and there was no rest, and lunch was almost impossible. But she felt essential and valued, and the work was exhilarating. She was in touch with people all over the globe and knew she could answer any Circle question in minutes.
It was late in the afternoon one Monday when Dan, her team leader, sent a message: "Great day so far! Meet at 5?"
Mae arrived at Dan's door. He stood, guided her to a chair and closed the door. He sat behind his desk and tapped his tablet screen.
"97. 98. 98. 98. Wonderful aggregates this week."
"Thank you," Mae said.
Dan's earnest eyes probed into hers. "Mae, have you had a good experience so far here at the Circle?"
"Absolutely," she said.
His face brightened. "Good. Good. That's very good news. I asked you to come in just to, well, to square that with your social behavior here and the message it's sending. And I think I might have failed to communicate everything about this job properly. So I blame myself if I haven't done that well enough."
"No. No. I know you did a good job. I'm sure you did."
"Well, thank you, Mae. I appreciate that. But what we need to talk about is the, well . . . Let me put it another way. You know this isn't what you might call a clock-in, clock-out type of company. Does that make sense?"
"Oh, I know. I wouldn't . . . Did I imply that I thought? . . ."
"No, no. You didn't imply anything. We just haven't seen you around so much after 5 o'clock, so we wondered if you were, you know, anxious to leave."
"No, no. Do you need me to stay later?"
Dan winced. "No, it's not that. You handle your workload just fine. But we missed you at the Industrial Revolution party last Thursday night, which was a pretty crucial team-building event, centered on a product we're all very proud of. You missed at least two newbie events, and at the circus the other night, it looked like you couldn't wait to leave. I think you were out of there in 20 minutes. Those things might be understandable if your Participation Rank wasn't so low. Do you know what it is?"
Mae guessed it was in the 8,000-range. "I think so."
"You think so," Dan said, glancing at his screen. "It's 9,101. Does that sound right?" It had dropped in the last hour, since she last checked.
"It must be," Mae said.
Dan clucked and nodded. "So it's been sort of adding up and, well, we started worrying that we were somehow driving you away."
"No, no! It's nothing like that."
"O.K., let's focus on Friday at 5:30. We had a gathering in the Old West, where your friend Annie works. It was semi-mandatory, it was very fun, but you weren't there. You were off-campus, which really confuses me. It's as if you were fleeing."
Mae's mind raced. Why hadn't she gone? Where was she? How had she missed a semi-mandatory event? The notice must have been buried deep in her social feed.
"God, I'm sorry," she said, remembering now. "My dad had a seizure — he has MS, so it happens sometimes. It ended up being minor, but I didn't know that until I got home."
Dan looked at his glass desk and, with a tissue, tried to remove a smudge. Satisfied, he looked up.
"That's very understandable. To spend time with your parents, believe me, I think that is very, very cool. I just want to emphasize the community aspect of this job. We see this workplace as a community, and every person who works here is part of that community. To that end, I wonder if you'd be willing to stay a few extra minutes, to talk to Josiah and Denise. I think you remember them from your orientation? They'd love to just extend the conversation we're having and go a bit deeper. Does that sound good?"
"You don't have to rush home or . . . ?"
"No. I'm all yours."
"Good. Good. Here they are now."
Mae turned to see Denise and Josiah, both waving, on the other side of Dan's glass door. She followed them down the hall and into a conference room Mae had passed many times. The room was oval, the walls glass.
"Let's have you sit here," Denise said, indicating a high-backed leather chair. She and Josiah sat across from her, arranging their tablets and adjusting their seats, as if settling in for a task that might take hours and would almost surely be unpleasant. Mae tried to smile.
"As you know," Denise said, putting a strand of her dark hair behind her ear, "we're from H.R., and this is just a regular check-in we do with new community members here. We do them somewhere in the company every day, and we're especially glad to see you again. You're such an enigma."
"I am?"
"You are. It's been years since I can remember someone joining who was so, you know, shrouded in mystery. So I thought maybe we would start by talking a little about you, and after we get to know more about you, we can talk about ways that you might feel comfortable joining in a bit more in terms of the community. Does that sound good?"
Mae nodded. "Of course." She looked to Josiah, who hadn't said a word yet but who was working furiously on his tablet, typing and swiping.
"Good. I thought we would start by saying that we really like you," Denise said.
Josiah finally looked up and spoke, his blue eyes bright. "We do," he said. "We really do. You are a supercool member of the team. Everyone thinks so."
"Thank you," Mae said, feeling sure that she was being fired.
"And your work here has been exemplary," Denise continued. "Your ratings have been averaging 97, and that's excellent, especially for your first month. Do you feel satisfied with your performance?"
Mae guessed at the right answer. "I do."
Denise nodded. "Good. But as you know, it's not all about work here. Or rather, it's not all about ratings and approvals and such. You're not just some cog in a machine."
Josiah was shaking his head vigorously. "We consider you a full, knowable human being of unlimited potential. And a crucial member of the community."
"Thank you," Mae said, now less sure she was being let go.
Denise's smile was pained. "But then there's your absence at most of the weekend and evening events, all of which are of course totally optional, and your corresponding PartiRank, which is surprisingly low for a newbie. Let's start with this past weekend. We know you left campus at 5:42 p.m. on Friday, and you got back here 8:46 a.m. on Monday."
"Was there work on the weekend?" Mae searched her memory, grabbing desperately. "Did I miss something?"
"No, no, no," Denise said. "There wasn't, you know, mandatory work here on the weekend. That's not to say that there weren't thousands of people here Saturday and Sunday, enjoying the campus, participating in a hundred different activities."
"I know, I know. But I was home. My dad was sick, and I went back to help out."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Josiah said. "Was this related to his MS?"
"It was." Josiah made a sympathetic face, and Denise leaned forward. "But see, here's where it gets especially confusing. We don't know anything about this episode. Did you reach out to any Circlers during this crisis? You know that there are four groups on campus for staffers dealing with MS? Two of them are for children of MS sufferers. Have you sought out one of these groups?"
"No, not yet. I've been meaning to."
"O.K.," Denise said. "Let's table that thought for a second, because that's instructive, the fact that you were aware of the groups but didn't seek them out. Surely you acknowledge the benefit of sharing information about this disease?"
"I do."
"And that sharing with other young people whose parents suffer from the disease — do you see the benefit in this?"
"For example, when you heard your dad had a seizure, you drove, what, a hundred miles or so, and never once during that drive did you try to glean any information from the InnerCirclers or from the larger OuterCircle. Do you see that as an opportunity wasted?"
"Now I do, absolutely. I was just upset, and worried, and I was driving like a maniac. I wasn't very present."
Denise raised a finger. "Ah, present. That is a wonderful word. I'm glad you used it. Do you consider yourself usually present?"
"I try to be."
Josiah smiled and tapped a flurry into his tablet.
"But the opposite of present would be what?" Denise asked.
"Yes. Absent. Let's put a pin in that thought, too. Let's go back to your dad and this weekend. Did he recover O.K.?"
"He did. It was a false alarm, really."
"Good. I'm so glad to hear about that. But it's curious that you didn't share this with anyone else. Did you post anything anywhere about this episode? A zing, a comment anywhere?"
"No, I didn't," Mae said.
"Hmm. O.K.," Denise said, taking a breath. "Do you think someone else might have benefited from your experience? That is, maybe the next person who might drive two or three hours home might benefit from knowing what you found out about the episode, that it was just a minor pseudo-seizure?"
"Absolutely. I could see that being helpful."
"Good. So what do you think the action plan should be?"
"I think I'll join the MS club," Mae said, "and I should post something about what happened. I know it'll be beneficial."
Denise smiled. "Fantastic. Now let's talk about the rest of the weekend. On Friday, you find out that your dad's O.K. But the rest of the weekend, you basically go blank. You logged into your profile only three times, and nothing was updated. It's like you disappeared!" Her eyes grew wide. "This is when someone like you, with a low PartiRank, might be able to improve that, if she wanted to. But yours actually dropped — 2,000 points. Not to get all number-geeky, but you were on 8,625 on Friday and by late Sunday you were at 10,288."
"I didn't know it was that bad," Mae said, hating herself, this self who couldn't seem to get out of her own way. "I guess I was just recovering from the stress of my dad's episode."
"Can you talk about what you did on Saturday?"
"It's embarrassing," Mae said. "Nothing."
" 'Nothing' meaning what?"
"Well, most of the day I stayed at my parents' house and just watched TV."
Josiah brightened. "Anything good?"
"Just some women's basketball."
"There's nothing wrong with women's basketball!" Josiah gushed. "I love women's basketball. Have you followed my W.N.B.A. zings?"
"No. Do you have a zing feed about the W.N.B.A.?"
Josiah nodded, looking hurt, even bewildered.
"I'm sorry," Mae said. "I guess I just didn't think my interest in the W.N.B.A. rose to the level where it warranted joining a discussion group or, you know, following anything. I'm not that passionate about it."
Denise squinted at Mae. "That's an interesting choice of words: Passion. You've heard of P.P.T.? Passion, Participation and Transparency?"
Mae had seen the letters "P.P.T." around campus and had not, until that moment, connected the letters to these three words. She felt like a fool.
Denise put her palms on the desk, as if she might get up. "Mae, you know this is a technology company, correct?"
"Of course."
"And that we consider ourselves on the forefront of social media."
"And you know the term 'transparency,' correct?"
"I do. Absolutely." Josiah looked at Denise, hoping to calm her. She put her hands in her lap. Josiah took over. He smiled and swiped his tablet, turning a new page.
"O.K.," he said. "Let's go to Sunday. Tell us about Sunday."
"I just drove back."
"That's it?"
"Oh, and I kayaked."
Josiah and Denise registered dual looks of surprise.
"You kayaked?" Josiah said. "Where?"
"Just in the bay."
"With who?"
"No one. Just alone."
"I kayak," Josiah said, and then typed something in his tablet, pressing very hard.
Denise looked at Josiah with a stern kind of compassion, then turned to Mae. "How often do you kayak?"
"Maybe once every few weeks?"
Josiah was looking intently at his tablet. "Mae, I'm looking at your profile," he said, "and I'm finding nothing about you and kayaking. No smiles, no ratings, no posts, nothing. And now you're telling us you kayak once every few weeks?"
"Well, maybe it's less than that?" Mae laughed, but Denise and Josiah did not. Josiah continued to stare at his screen, while Denise's eyes probed into Mae.
"When you go kayaking, Mae, what do you see?"
"I don't know. All kinds of things."
"Seals, sea lions, pelicans?"
Denise tapped at her tablet. "O.K., I'm doing a search now of your name for visual documentation of any of these trips you've taken. I'm not finding anything."
"Oh, I've never brought a camera."
Josiah looked up, his eyes pained.
"But how do you identify all these animals?" Denise asked.
"I have this little thing my ex-boyfriend gave me," Mae said. "It's just a little foldable guide to local wildlife."
Josiah exhaled loudly.
"I'm sorry," Mae said.
Josiah rolled his eyes. "No, I mean, I know this is a tangent, but my problem with paper is that all communication dies with it. It holds no possibility of continuity. You look at your paper guide, and that's where it ends. It ends with you. Like you're the only one who matters. But think if you'd been documenting. If you'd been using a tool that would help confirm the identity of whatever birds you saw, then anyone can benefit — naturalists, students, historians, the Coast Guard. Everyone can know, then, what birds were on the bay on that day. It's just maddening, thinking of how much knowledge is lost every day through this kind of shortsightedness. And I don't want to call it selfish but — "
"No. It was. I know it was," Mae said.
Josiah softened. "But documentation aside, I'm just fascinated why you wouldn't mention anything about kayaking anywhere. I mean, it's a part of you. An integral part."
Mae let out an involuntary scoff. "I don't think it's all that integral. Or all that interesting, really. Lots of people kayak," Mae said.
"That's exactly it!" Josiah said, quickly turning red. "Wouldn't you like to meet other people who kayak?" Josiah tapped at his screen. "There are 2,331 people near you who also like to kayak. Including me."
Denise was looking at Mae intensely. "Mae, I have to ask a delicate question. Do you think . . . Well, do you think this might be an issue of self-esteem?"
"Excuse me?"
"Are you reluctant to express yourself and to share your experiences because you fear you aren't valuable? That the moments of your life, and your opinions, don't matter?"
Mae had never thought about it quite this way, but it made a certain sense. Was she too shy about expressing herself? "I don't know, actually," she said.
Denise narrowed her eyes. "Mae, I'm no psychologist, but if I were, I might have a question about your sense of self-worth. We've studied some models for this kind of behavior. Not to say this kind of attitude is antisocial, but it's certainly sub-social and certainly far from transparent. And we see that this behavior sometimes stems from a low sense of self-worth — a point of view that says, 'Oh, what I have to say isn't so important.' Do you feel that describes your point of view?"
Mae was too off-balance to see herself clearly. She didn't know what to say.
"Mae," Denise said, "we'd love if you could participate in a special program. I think it'll really open your eyes to just how valuable a participant you can be. I think this shyness, this sense that your voice and your experiences don't matter — I think that will all soon be in the past. Does that sound appealing? What do you think, would you like to be enrolled in this program?"
Mae knew nothing about it but knew she should say yes, so she smiled and said, "Absolutely."
After the interview, at her desk, Mae scolded herself. What kind of person was she? She was so ashamed. She'd been doing the bare minimum. She disgusted herself and felt for Annie. Surely Annie had been hearing about her deadbeat friend Mae, who took this gift, this coveted job at the Circle — a company that had, at her desperate request, insured her parents! Had saved them from familial catastrophe! — and had been skating through. Damn it, Mae, she thought. Be a person of some value to the world.
She texted Annie, apologizing, saying she would do better, that she was embarrassed, that she didn't want to abuse this privilege, and telling her that there was no need to write back, that she would simply do better, a thousand times better, immediately and from then on. Annie texted back, told her not to worry, that it was just a slap on the wrist, a correction, a common thing for newbies.
Mae looked at the time. It was 6 o'clock. She had plenty of hours to improve, there and then, so she embarked on a flurry of activity, sending 4 zings and 32 comments and 88 smiles. In an hour, her PartiRank rose to 7,288. Breaking 7,000 was more difficult, but by 8, after joining and posting in 11 discussion groups, sending another 12 zings, one of them rated in the top 5,000 globally for that hour, and signing up for 67 more feeds, she'd done it. She was at 6,872, and she turned to her InnerCircle social feed. She was a few hundred posts behind, and she made her way through, replying to 70 or so messages, RSVPing to 11 events on campus, signing nine petitions and providing comments and constructive criticism on four products currently in beta. By 10:16, her rank was 5,342, and again, the plateau — this time at 5,000 — was hard to overcome. She wrote a series of zings about a new Circle service, allowing account holders to know whenever their name was mentioned in any messages sent from anyone else, and one of the zings, her seventh on the subject, caught fire and was rezinged 2,904 times, and this brought her PartiRank up to 3,887.
She felt a profound sense of accomplishment and possibility that was accompanied, in short order, by a near-complete sense of exhaustion. It was almost midnight, and she needed sleep. It was too late to go all the way home, so she checked the dorm availability, reserved one, got her access code, walked across campus and into HomeTown.
When she closed the door to her room, she felt like a fool for not taking advantage of the dorms sooner. The room was immaculate, awash in silver fixtures and blond woods, the floors warm from radiant heat, the sheets and pillowcases so white and crisp they crackled when touched. The mattress, explained a card next to the bed, was organic, made not with springs or foam but instead a new fiber that Mae found was both firmer and more pliant — superior to any bed she'd ever known. She pulled the blanket, cloud-white and full of down, around her.
But she couldn't sleep. Now, thinking about how much better she could do, she logged on again, this time on her tablet, and pledged to work till 2 in the morning. She was determined to break 3,000. And she did so, though it was 3:19 a.m. when it happened. Finally, her mind aglow but knowing she needed rest, she tucked herself in and turned off the lights.
At the end of every Circle workweek was Dream Friday, when Circlers gathered and were inspired — by products in development or a milestone the company had reached. This Friday, Annie told Mae, would be particularly significant, and they went to the Great Hall together. It was in the Enlightenment, and when they entered the venue, a 3,500-seat cavern appointed in warm woods and brushed steel, it was loud with anticipation. Mae and Annie found one of the last pairs of seats in the second balcony and sat down.
"Just finished this a few months ago," Annie said. "Forty-five million dollars. Bailey modeled the stripes off the Duomo in Siena. Nice, right? Oh, here he comes."
Mae's attention was pulled to the stage, where a man was walking to a Lucite podium, amid a roar of applause. Eamon Bailey, one of the company's three C.E.O.'s, the most social and personable of the Three Wise Men, was a tall man of about 45, round in the gut but not unhealthy, wearing jeans and blue V-neck sweater. There was no discernible microphone, but when he began speaking, his voice was amplified and clear.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Eamon Bailey," he said, to another round of applause that he quickly discouraged. "Thank you. I'm so glad to see you all here. I know you're used to hearing from one of our engineers or developers, but today, for better or for worse, it's just me. For that I apologize in advance. But what I have to show you today, something we're calling SeeChange, I think it'll knock your socks off."
A screen descended behind him, and on it appeared a rugged coastline in perfect resolution. "O.K., this is live video of Stinson Beach. This is the surf right at this moment. Looks pretty good, right?"
Annie leaned into Mae. "The next part's incredible. Just wait."
"Now, many of you still aren't so impressed. As we all know, many machines can deliver high-res streaming video, and many of your tablets and phones can already support them. But there are a couple new aspects to all this. The first part is how we're getting this image. Would it surprise you to know that this crystal-clear image isn't coming from a big camera, but actually just one of these?"
He was holding a small device in his hand, the shape and size of a lollipop.
"This is a video camera, and this is the precise model that's getting this incredible image quality. Image quality that holds up to this kind of magnification. So that's the first great thing. We can now get high-def-quality resolution in a camera the size of a thumb. Well, a very big thumb. The second great thing is that, as you can see, this camera needs no wires. It's transmitting this image via satellite."
A round of applause shook the room.
"Wait. Did I say it runs on a lithium battery that lasts two years? No? Well it does. And we're a year away from an entirely solar-powered model, too. And it's waterproof, sandproof, windproof, animalproof, insectproof, everything-proof."
More applause overtook the hall.
"O.K., so, many of you are thinking, Well, this is just like closed-circuit TV crossed with streaming technology, satellites, all that. Fine. But as you know, to do this with extant technology would have been prohibitively expensive for the average person. But what if all this was accessible and affordable to anyone? My friends, we're looking at retailing these — in just a few months, mind you — at $59 each."
Bailey held the lollipop camera out and threw it to someone in the front row. The woman who caught it held it aloft, turning to the audience and smiling gleefully.
"You can buy 10 of them for Christmas, and suddenly you have constant access to everywhere you want to be — home, work, traffic conditions. And anyone can install them. It takes five minutes tops. Think of the implications!"
The screen behind him cleared, the beach disappearing, and a new grid appeared.
"Here's the view from my backyard," he said, revealing a live feed of a tidy and modest backyard. "Here's my front yard. My garage. Here's one on a hill overlooking Highway 101 where it gets bad during rush hour."
And soon the screen had 16 discrete images on it, all of them transmitting live feeds.
"Now, these are just my cameras. I access them all by simply typing in Camera 1, 2, 3, 12, whatever. Easy. But what about sharing? That is, what if my buddy has some cameras posted and wants to give me access?"
And now the screen's grid multiplied, from 16 boxes to 32. "Here's my pal Lionel Fitzpatrick's screens. He's into skiing, so he's got cameras positioned so he can tell the conditions at 12 locations all over Tahoe."
Now there were 12 live images of white-topped mountains, ice blue valleys, ridges topped with deep green conifers.
"Lionel can give me access to any of the cameras he wants. It's just like friending someone, but now with access to all their live feeds. Forget cable. Forget 500 channels. If you have 1,000 friends, and they have 10 cameras each, you now have 10,000 options for live footage. If you have 5,000 friends, you have 50,000 options. And soon you'll be able to connect to millions of cameras around the world. Again, imagine the implications!"
The screen atomized into a thousand mini-screens. Beaches, mountains, lakes, cities, offices, living rooms.
The crowd applauded wildly. "But for now, let's go back to the places in the world where we most need transparency and so rarely have it. This is what the name SeeChange is all about — not oceans and ski resorts. It's about affecting change through our ability to see and hold the world accountable, right? Let's see our cameras in Tiananmen Square."
Fifty live shots from all over the square filled the screen, and the crowd erupted again. "Imagine the difference these would have made when it mattered!" Bailey roared. Now he cleared the screen again and stepped toward the audience. "Well, from now on, we'll be everywhere it matters. Let's see the cameras in Damascus. Khartoum. Pyongyang." He went on, the screen filling with live views from every authoritarian regime — and everywhere the cameras were so small they went undetected.
"You know what I say, right? In situations like this, I agree with The Hague, with human rights activists the world over. There needs to be accountability. Tyrants can no longer hide. There needs to be, and will be, access and documentation, and we need to bear witness. And to this end, I insist that all that happens must be known."
The words appeared on the screen:
"Folks, we're at the dawn of the Second Enlightenment. I'm talking about an era where we don't allow the majority of human thought and action and achievement and learning to escape as if from a leaky bucket. We did that once before. It was called the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages. If not for the monks, everything the world had ever learned would have been lost. Well, we live in a similar time, when we're losing the vast majority of what we do and see and learn. But it doesn't have to be that way. Not with these cameras, and not with the mission of the Circle."
He turned again toward the screen and read it, inviting the audience to commit it to memory: "All that happens must be known."
Mae leaned toward Annie. "Incredible."
"It is, right?" Annie said.
Mae rested her head on Annie's shoulder. "All that happens will be known," she whispered.
The audience was standing now, and applause thundered through the room.


text:
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text: Hi, I recently upgraded to from a BB 9900 to a BB Q 10. All my contacts are save on gmail. I created the account and the contacts were synced. When I receive calls some IDs show up while others show up like this - +86 8xxxxxxx. I Tried changing the format I have saved the numbers in. e.g. saving as +1 (868) xxx-xxxx, +1868xxxxxxx, (868) xxx-xxxx, xxx-xxxx...however none of these worked. I also changed the smart dialing options to +1 and area code to 868 but adding the 868 made the problem worst. Please help. Thanks Shaun.


text:
First Look: Cocktails at Gin Palace, NYC
At Mayahuel and Cienfuegos, Ravi DeRossi enshrined tequila and rum, respectively, building bar programs to showcase the best of each spirit. Now it's gin's turn, and together with bar managers Tom Chadwick and Frank Cisneros, he's gone and tossed in a twist: this isn't just a juniper joint, it's a full-on challenge to a culture he helped create.
"The idea here is to be a little more approachable than that," he says, pointing to Death + Company (arguably his most famous, and certainly his strictest bar), just a few doors away. "You know, the sitting-only, super-civilized cocktail thing? There's too many of them. Their time has come to pass."
DeRossi had long been itching to focus on gin, and in the past 18 months it seemed the perfect spirit with which to, well, change the spirit of things: "Gin palaces were the original dive bars," he says. "Opening one right now may not be a rebellion, exactly, but it's definitely a response."
Gin Palace's design stems from historical research and the owners' affections for subtle steampunk detail. Sitting at street level, it feels like a basement rock club, its grittier edges gilded with gold wings and intricate, gear-like moulding. The drinks themselves take a similar approach to historical accuracy; they're inspired by the Victorian drinking culture, but not entombed in it.
"The cocktails are all gin-forward and flavorful, not fussy or ornate," says Chadwick. "The drinks reflect the place's democratic approach. We keep the combinations simple, bold, and a little rowdy in concept. A little rock & roll." Which isn't to say they're crafted less lovingly than at the bars that came before. Bartenders still use hand-cut ice and house-infused bitters while they're cranking out playful signatures like the Police and Thieves (Plymouth gin plus a bevy of fresh citrus and cinnamon) and White Negronis (Old Tom gin, Salers aperitif, a spine of bianco vermouth), they're just a little quicker about it. (To see one expression of the bar's need for speed, order a gin and tonic. They've got it on tap.)
"There's a place for the other style, of course, but the city's full of people who have been doing those intricate techniques for so long, they can do them at a higher volume now," says Chadwick. "They can do them at a regular bar."
Check out a few of Gin Palace's cocktails in the slideshow above, or head to the East Village to sample them yourself. No need to make a reservation or know a secret knock.
Gin Palace
95 Ave A, New York NY 10009 (map) 212-614-6818; ginpalaceny.com
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


text:
Lift-The-Dot single height rivet type stud.
Strong and heavy duty, Lift-The-DOT fasteners lock on three sides and are opened by lifting the fourth side which is marked with a stamped Lift-The-DOT logo. Lift-The-DOT is available in a variety of socket prong lengths and stud heights to accommodate a wide range of material thickness. All items are available in nickel plate, NATO black brass and brass gilt.


text:
Broadcom Readying Its First LTE Chip, Which It Claims Will Be Smaller Than Rivals'
After being stuck in 3G land for a while now, Broadcom said it is getting closer to having a modem chip that supports faster LTE networks.
The chip, which it is sampling now and is set for volume production next year, is said to be a third smaller than many rival chips, while supporting all the key standards and technologies. Among its features is support for voice calls over LTE, as well as a feature to bond together different frequencies that a carrier has into one faster pipeline onto the Internet.
"We think it is going to be a winner," Broadcom CEO Scott McGregor said in an interview.
Thus far, Qualcomm has dominated the LTE market with its chips, though other chipmakers are starting to enter the market.
"Other people have announced some chips that maybe nibble away at the low end of the market," McGregor said.
By contrast, Broadcom's goal is to have a product that can go in the highest-end products.
"The real goal here is to create a product that really is a world chip for the flagship smartphones and tablets," he said.


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text:
|Biosequences .. Software .. Molbio soft .. Network News .. FTP
Dear netters, Can anyone out there tell me the E-mail address or Fax No. of Dr. Lawrence Bogorad (Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology) at Harvard Univ.? And about the numeric address of Harvard Univ.? Thanks in advance ================================== Byung-Hoon Kim Department of Biology Korea University Seoul, Korea E-mail: bhkim at kuccnx.korea.ac.kr ==================================


text:
Educator Thomas Groome says there is 'no better way to be religious than our Catholic faith.'
Catholic religious educator Thomas Groome called for a "new awareness of the centrality of Jesus to the Catholic faith."
In an era where people can choose their religion, a focus on Jesus Christ is "always persuasive and never coercive," said the professor of theology and religious education at Boston College, and author of numerous books.
The answer to the question "Will there be faith," cannot be assumed to be yes, he said. For example, in Dublin, in his native Ireland, in one generation church attendance has dropped to seven per cent from 80 per cent.
For Groome, the question also should be "What faith?"
"It's not the Bible, it's not the Church, it's not dogma," Groome said May 15 at the opening of the new Centre for Religious Education and Catechesis at Saint Paul University in Ottawa.
"Those are all constituent parts. At the heart we find a person, Jesus of Nazareth."
Passing on the faith means both the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith, he said. "We can't forget that bond with Jesus. The ultimate purpose is to put people into intimacy with Jesus so they can walk in his footsteps."
When asked what word they associate most with their faith, Baptists say "the Bible" and evangelicals say "Jesus," he said. But Catholics are most likely to answer "Church."
Religious educators face new challenges in the secular age where faith is separated from life. That separation didn't exist when Groome was growing up on a farm in County Kildare, Ireland.
When he was a young boy he contracted pneumonia. His older sister had died of it. His father, who was a politician, was away at the legislature during the week.
No one in his household knew how to hitch up the pony and get young Thomas to a doctor – a trek of 16 to 20 km in cold, wintery conditions. So his mother pinned a relic of St. Theresa of the Little Flower to his pajamas and vowed not to get off her knees until the fever broke.
He and his mother both fell asleep and when they awoke the fever had broken, something that to her dying day she considered a miracle.
"Her granddaughter would never do that," he said. "She would put the kid in the SUV, go to the doctor and get a round of antibiotics and the kid would be running around the next day."
"In those days we prayed constantly about the weather," he said, noting now one merely needs to look up the forecast for the next several days. "These are not all bad reasons (faith) gets pushed aside."
"The modern world excludes any reference or dependence on the transcendent," he said. Faith has become marginalized.
"The New Evangelization is about bringing us out of the Church and into the world," he said. "The best way to bring people into the Church is through a joyful, living Gospel."
"The responsibility to be religious educators and to spread the Gospel comes with our Baptism," he said.
Our primary identity is as spiritual beings, he said, and there is "no better way to be religious than our Catholic faith."
"There is no better way to live than to follow Jesus," he said. Imagine how I would be if I lived the faith fully, how integrated, how loving, how truthful, how alive I would be for myself and for others.
Growing up in in an Irish village there was no way to escape the Catholic faith. It permeated everything. While there was a graciousness, a sense of humour and deeply lived faith of this pre-Vatican II generation, Groome said he is not hearkening for a return to this era.
"This is not possible today," he said. "Now is the time for us to choose, to have a real choice."
"There should be a tremendous freedom in our faith," he said. "Can we believe it and not live it?" Groome asked. "Yes, I do it regularly and I call it sin."
This gap between what we believe and how we live needs to be addressed, he said. Some start with the head first, or the heart, or the hands.
Jesus said "If you live according to my teaching, you will know the truth." Sometimes the hands come first, Groome said, because living the faith enables you to understand it.


text:
DOVER — After a three-week trial, a Strafford County Superior Court jury found Christina Thomas guilty of intentionally starving a young boy for several years.
Thomas, 34, of New Durham, was taken into custody without bail after she was found guilty of first-degree assault, an enhanced charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 to 30 years in prison, according to Deputy County Attorney Alysia Cassotis.
The jury reached a unanimous verdict after deliberations that lasted just more than two hours.
The jury ruled Thomas "knowingly" caused serious bodily injury to the young child who was under her care by depriving him of nutrition between 2006 and 2010, causing the boy's failure to thrive.
The boy, now 9 years old, is the son of Thomas' friend from her teenage years. The boy weighed 23 pounds when he was 6� years old, according to witness testimony throughout the trial. The boy is now in an open adoptive relationship with his biological mother, a woman with a developmental disability who was also reportedly abused by Thomas.
Thomas' family members who were sitting in the courtroom on Friday began crying and sobbing after the guilty verdict was read around 3:45 p.m. Friday.
"It was an emotional case for them, and for everybody, on both sides," said Cassotis.
After the jury foreman read the verdict aloud, each of the 12 jury members was asked their finding in the case. One by one, each jury member said: "Guilty."
Thomas, who has been out on personal recognizance bail throughout the trial, was handcuffed immediately after Judge John Lewis revoked her bail. She looked at her family members as she was being escorted out of the courtroom by two officers of the Strafford County Sheriff's Office. One family member was heard saying, "I love you" to Thomas.
After testimony by final witnesses, as well as closing arguments on Friday, the jury found Thomas guilty at the highest level of intention. The jury ruled that Thomas committed the assault "knowingly," meaning she knew her actions would result in the child's failure to thrive. Had the jury not found Thomas of knowingly committing the assault, they could have convicted her of committing the crime "recklessly."
According to the Strafford County Attorney's Office, Thomas's first-degree felony assault charge was enhanced because the victim was a child; therefore, the charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 to 30 years in prison, as opposed to the 7�- to 15-year maximum sentence typically applied to Class A felony convictions.
Bail for Thomas was revoked after Cassotis argued Thomas had previously expressed intent to possibly leave the state with one of her children. She said several witnesses in the trial have also expressed fear of retaliation by Thomas or her family members. Cassotis also mentioned the crime of witness tampering may also have occurred during the trial proceedings.
On the issue of bail, Thomas's defense attorney Steven Keable argued that Thomas has always appeared at court hearings and that she is not a flight risk, but Judge Lewis revoked Thomas' bail, saying, "I am quite disturbed in regard to what happened to the child."
During the trial, staff of the New Durham School testified they were told by Thomas to take away some of the boy's food as a form of punishment.
Witnesses, including the boy's biological mother, testified Thomas also withheld food from the boy if he complained about being hungry or was getting emotional.
Witnesses also testified seeing the boy kept in a dog kennel at the New Durham home, or tied by a dog leash to his bunk bed, as a form of punishment.
Cassotis said that sentencing for Thomas will likely happen in the next 60 days. Before sentencing, the Department of Corrections will conduct a presentencing investigation (PSI), in which a neutral department member, likely a probation or parole officer, will collect information from prosecution and defense, with potential interviews, and make a recommendation on Thomas' sentence, said County Attorney Thomas Velardi. That way, the judge will have both perspectives on the case in deciding her sentence.
During closing arguments on Friday, Keable said Thomas' actions were negligent, rather than knowing or reckless, because she wasn't aware that her actions would put the child's health at risk. He argued the medical community never told Thomas the child was not getting enough food.
He said while Thomas attempted to solve the boy's alleged food intolerance, which was made apparent through his vomiting, "Nobody was giving her answers."
Thomas, he said, was occupied with finding various recipes for foods the boy could tolerate, such as food involving tofu.
Keable also argued Thomas was not the only caretaker for the young boy, and that, "This was a child under care of many different adults" in the Thomas household.
"You've heard testimony from a variety of people that he was being fed," said Keable.
The defense attorney also questioned the credibility of some of the witnesses on the prosecution's behalf, and asked the jury to consider potential biases they might have against Thomas.
During the prosecution's closing arguments, Cassotis said six people testified seeing atrocities being committed at Thomas' home against the boy, and that it was unlikely all of them were "out to get" Thomas. She noted that some even considered Thomas to be a friend, and felt obligated to lie on her behalf.
"No child should ever have to suffer the inhumanity (the victim) suffered at Christina Thomas' home," she said.
Pointing to Thomas' intention to commit the assault, Cassotis said Thomas was disgusted by the victim's tendency to ruminate — a condition in which a person vomits into the mouth. She said Thomas was under the impression the young boy was ruminating on purpose, and that she found it "disgusting," so she deprived him of food.
"Christina (Thomas) got to a point where she really despised him," said Cassotis.
The deputy county attorney also pointed to Thomas missing multiple doctor's appointments for the young victim, including a time when she waited for two years to bring the child in for an emergency follow-up appointment.
"She wants everyone to believe she's been crying for help this whole time (to help the boy with food intolerance issues) but that is not the case," said Cassotis. "We know if nothing else, Christina (Thomas) is a good actress."
Cassotis also argued that almost all of the witnesses on the defense's behalf would be significantly affected by the verdict.
She said two of Thomas' children who took stand this week testified that their mother did nothing wrong. Thomas's 17-year-old son, Jacob Thomas, could not recall details when asked about events that would hurt his mother's case, Cassotis pointed out.
Cassotis also noted that Thomas's 10-year-old child — who had previously told Division of Children, Youth, and Families that the children were hit with paddles in the Thomas household — was not able to testify Thursday because the child happened to be out of state that day.
According to Cassotis, Thomas also has other pending charges, alleging she committed offenses against the biological mother of the boy she starved. Thomas is facing a felony-level criminal threatening charge, for allegedly threatening the boy's mother with a knife, as well as misdemeanor-level simple assault charges.
Cassotis said there is also a pending investigation in connection to events that occurred during the three-week trial.
Thomas' mother, Peggy Starr, is also scheduled to go to trial in April in connection with the case. She is facing a felony assault charge against the boy.
After Thomas was found guilty and taken into custody, Starr was told to sit next to Keable at the defense table. Velardi said she was reportedly using her cell phone to take pictures of the jury, and her phone was confiscated for review. After some time, Cassotis entered the courtroom and reported that no pictures of the jury were found on Starr's cell phone.


text:
The following excerpt comes from the final chapter of my book Media, New Media, Postmedia, recently published in Italian by Postmediabooks, who kindly gave Rhizome permission to republish it in English. The book is an attempt to analyze the current positioning of so-called "New Media Art" in the wider field of contemporary arts, and to explore the historical, sociological and conceptual reasons for its marginal position and under-recognition in recent art history.
Remo Saraceni
From a broadcast of the Omni television show hosted by Peter Ustinov ca.1981
A New History for New Media
Edward A. Shanken's new book Art and Electronic Media (Themes & Movements), published by Phaidon Press, presents a rich and comprehensive overview of the history of electronic media art practices in the twentieth century, focusing mostly on work produced in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The book balances the historical and the contemporary, the analytic and the particular, with style and critical rigor.
The text is organized thematically in order to cover major topics in the field: Motion, Duration, Illumination; Coded Form and Electronic Production; Charged Environments; Networks, Surveillance, Culture Jamming; Bodies, Surrogates, Emergent Systems; Simulations and Simulacra; and Exhibitions, Institutions, Communities, Collaborations. Given the extensive breath, in historical accounts and details, this organization system presents the reader with a convenient way to access a historical period, artist, or practice of their particular interest. Each theme reappears three times throughout the book, in each of the three main sections: Survey, Works, and Documents (a division that is consistent with previous volumes published in this Phaidon series).
Quality research into the history of electronic media art production, exhibition, and conception is consistent throughout. The section on "Networks," for instance, includes an insightful contextualization of new internet-based art with pre-network art, such as Hans Haache's 1969 News, an installation that involves a series of Teletype machines set to receive and print local, national, and international news in real time. Shanken's placement of current genres in these historical frameworks not only enhances our appreciation of the newer practices but also develops an understanding of the historical origins of net, systems, or environmental art.
Over 200 colorful images accompany the text, many of them projects that have not been exhibited widely. One example is the photograph of Christa Sommere and Laurent Mignonneau's A-Volve (1994-95 ...!--more-->
Required Reading
"The technical computer specialists, on the other hand, have to become aware of the potential contribution of the artists, develop a respect for their pattern perceiving and pattern generating abilities, for their trained sensitivity to the exploration of novelty, their ability to select what is most significant; indeed—at their best—to make concrete the future before it happens, before we can define it, formalize it and verbalize it." - Leslie Mezei
"Shifting Polarities: Exemplary Works of Canadian Electronic Media Art Produced Between 1970 and 1991" by Caroline Langill
In this research project funded by Montreal's Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology, artist, researcher and academic Caroline Langill selected pioneering examples of electronic and new media art produced by Canadian artists from 1970 to 1991. The introductory statement expresses a need to write this report in order to construct an understanding of the greater trajectory of Canadian new media art, whose history has remained under-documented. Langill chose artworks according to their exhibition history, larger recognition in terms of precedence for later artworks and innovation in audience interaction, and their technological contribution. I know little about this subject myself, and I found Langill's series of artist interviews, accompanying essay, and image library quite instructive. I was also impressed by the fact that at least half of the artists discussed here are women, which arguably was not the case in other contexts. See below for a few works from the project, click the link to access Shifting Polarities.
Catalog (1961) - John Whitney
One Thousand and One Biennials
Does anyone know how many biennials there are in the world, now? There is a whole sub-field of biennial studies that looks at such issues as the economic impacts of the shows on their host cities and the artists' market values, or the relationship between Eastern biennials and Westernization. Of course, the latter question hinges on whether the show is called a "biennial" or a "biennale"... The truth is, there are now so many of these that it's easy to overlook them. Even the fledging field of electronic art has a few! But Sweden's Electrohype is a unique one, bringing ambitious installations to the beautiful Malmö Konsthall. Now in its fifth incarnation, the show draws large audiences but avoids the temptation to be a mega-show, instead opting to give serious space and consideration to good work by often more emerging artists. Electrohype 08 features ten international artists whose projects focus on "ongoing processes and time." These are Doug Back (CA), Ralf Baecker (DE), Serina Erfjord (NO), Kerstin Ergenzinger (DE), Jessica Field (CA), Voldemars Johansons (LV), Diane Morin (CA), Kristoffer Myskja (NO), Erik Olofsen (NL), and Bill Vorn (CA). While time and endurance are age-old themes in the modern art world, there's not a usual suspect in the bunch! Nonetheless, there is due notice paid to the histories and influences traced by the show. For instance, Doug Back's Sticks (1979) is showing aside Ralf Baecker's Rechnender Raum (Calculating Space) (2007). Despite a large difference in scale and nearly thirty years between them, both are kinetic sculptures fleshing out what it means to compute and how mechanics might be used to reflect upon human movement. Ironically, the big piece looks at micro-motions within the body and the smaller one looks at social interaction! Other interesting works include ...
SAIC Memo (1981) - Phil Morton
Art Keeps On Slipping Into the Future
Stan VanDerBeek (1927-1984) shares with artists like Josef Albers, Aldous Huxley, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and Buckminster Fuller the legacy of having developed their practice at Black Mountain College, the creative mecca where these and other thinkers pushed the edges of visual art, music, literature, technology, and consciousness. His experimental films of the 1950s blurred dada collage and science fiction, and he was an early adopter of both analog processes and computer animation, establishing for him a godfather-like position in the origin-narratives surrounding new media. His often rough aesthetic anticipated glitch-fetishism by several decades and drove the surrealist aesthetic into new territory; yet this is not to say that his works didn't go down smoothly. (The internet is full of video evidence of his colorfully dreamy proliferations.) The artist is currently the subject of an exhibition at New York's Guild & Greyshkul gallery, where one can see VanDerBeek's contribution to the proto-history of digital copy-and-paste stylistics in the form of real copy-and-paste collages and his own reworkings of his early films. Much of the work in the show, including a "faux mural" he transmitted electronically to international venues, in 1970, was made in his days at MIT, where his immersion among scientists and engineers had a clear impact on his art. VanDerBeek had a futurist and almost cosmological approach to his work and was one of those artists known for spouting beautiful witticisms about finding universal modes of expression that transcended media and the confinement of traditional forms. At the end of the day, he also reminded us that "Art is the artifact of reality (not taken for granted)." - Marisa Olson


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Royal Caribbean Cruises put a bunch of tourists in a death trap by setting them up with a reckless Jamaican bus driver who ended up getting into a huge wreck … according to a new lawsuit.
The 8 passengers suing were aboard the Independence of the Seas a year ago when they pulled into port and booked a day excursion to Dunn's River Falls … which required them to take a bus, and their description of the ride is pretty hairy.
They say the driver was speeding, changing lanes and generally driving like a maniac. They repeatedly asked him to slow down, but were told he was driving "the way everyone typically drove in Jamaica."
According to docs, the only thing slow about the driver was his reaction to an oncoming truck … which had swerved into their lane. The passengers say their wheel man failed to get out of the way, and the bus was broadsided and flipped multiple times … causing severe and permanent injuries.
They say Royal Caribbean stuck them with an incompetent driver and failed to provide a safe excursion.
It's interesting, Jamaica's roads are kinda like the Wild West — it's a known risk of traveling there — so, this case could impact how cruise lines book day trips for passengers.


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Silver Moon: Lullabies and Cradle Songs by Jack Prelutsky hardcover
Silver Moon: Lullabies and Cradle Songs by Jack Prelutsky
This lavishly illustrated collection of twenty lullabies and cradle songs by the nationally bestselling poet Jack Prelutsky is a perfect gift for the new baby in the family.
Jack Prelutsky, a recording artist and the first children's poet laureate, has been publishing bestselling poetry collections and picture books for more than thirty years. The Silver Moon is a collection of twenty original lullabies and cradle songs perfect for reading (or singing) at bedtime or naptime. Jui Ishida's lush and spectacular illustrations accompany lullabies about the animal kingdom, about the moon and stars, and about loved ones closer to home. Jack Prelutsky has included the music for four of the lullabies on the last pages of the book; the remaining music can be downloaded at the author's website.


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Nature and Science
August 2019
Recent Releases
The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey into Greenland's Buried Past and...
Jon Gertner
What it's about:
Greenland, birthplace of glaciology and harbinger of climate change.
Why you might like it:
This eye-opening book pairs vividly detailed accounts of early scientific expeditions with present-day assessments of
Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet.
You might also like:
William E. Glassley's
A Wilder Time
, which similarly
reveals Greenland's deep past while speculating about its future in a rapidly warming world.
Symphony in C: Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything
Robert M. Hazen
What it is:
a sweeping history of carbon, the basic yet multifaceted chemical element that's essential to life as we know it.
What sets it apart:
Structured like a symphony, this book unfolds in four parts inspired by the classic elements of earth, air, fire, and water.
About the author:
Geologist (and semi-professional musician) Robert M. Hazen is a founder of the Deep Carbon Observatory, an international, interdisciplinary group of scientists dedicated to carbon research.
Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us
Ruth Kassinger
What it's about:
the 3.7 billion-year history of algae, "Earth's authentic alchemists": powered by sunlight and water, these organisms play a vital role in turning carbon dioxide into organic matter.
Why you might like it:
Science writer Ruth Kassinger travels the world to learn about algae's culinary uses, its role in everyday consumer products, and its potential as a renewable fuel.
Don't miss:
a selection of tasty, easy-to-prepare seaweed recipes.
Underland: A Deep Time Journey
Robert Macfarlane
What it is:
a lyrical and wide-ranging exploration of the world beneath our feet from tunnels and caves to catacombs and burial chambers to underground vaults and bunkers.
Why you might like it:
Nature writer Robert Macfarlane embarks on a journey both literal and metaphorical, connecting real-world observations to representations of the underworld in mythology, art, and literature.
Want a taste?
"Into the underland we have long placed that which we fear and wish to lose, and that which we love and wish to save."
The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America
Margaret O'Mara
What it is:
an "
accessible yet sophisticated chronicle"
New York Times
) of Silicon Valley that spans seven decades and includes the U.S. military-industrial complex, Stanford University, the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, and a sprawling cast of interesting characters.
Did you know?
The name "Silicon Valley" was coined in 1971 by
Electronic News
writer Don Hoefler.
Try this next:
Leslie Berlin's
, another
well-researched nonfiction account of the region's transformation into a tech hub.
To The Moon
Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight
Jay Barbree
What it is:
an engaging biography of astronaut Neil Armstrong, who,
on July 20, 1969,
made history as the first person to walk on the moon.
About the author:
During his 50-year career as a journalist, veteran NBC space correspondent Jay Barbree reported on every single crewed launch of the U.S. space program.
You might also like:
James R. Hansen's
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong
, which delves into the personal life of a very private individual.
Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11
James Donovan
What it is:
a comprehensive history of the space race,
eginning with the 1957 launch of Sputnik and culminating in the Apollo 11 Moon landing.
Reviewers say:
"[Author James] Donovan knows how to tell a gripping story" (
Further reading:
Chasing the Moon
Robert Stone and Alan Andres
American Moonshot
by Douglas Brinkley, and
Apollo's Legacy
by Roger D. Launius.
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, From Missiles to the Moon...
Nathalia Holt
Barby Canright, Macie Roberts, Helen Yee Chow, Barbara Lewis, Janez Lawson, Susan Finley, and others.
Why they matter:
This talented group of women calculated rocket trajectories, designed satellites, and analyzed massive amounts of experimental data for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
For fans of:
Margot Lee Shetterly's
Hidden Figures
, another collective biography of the unsung heroines of the U.S. space program.
Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon
Jeffrey Kluger
What it is:
an exciting account of the Apollo 8 mission that blends technical details of the mission with profiles of its participants.
Why you might like it:
Science writer Jeffrey Kluger draws on interviews with crew members Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, as well as materials from the NASA Oral History Project, to recreate the mission.
You might also like:
Robert Poole's
, which examines the creation of the iconic photograph of Earth as seen from space.
Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First...
Robert Kurson
Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, who carried out one of NASA's most challenging missions.
What they did:
Given 50-50 odds of returning safely, the trio risked their lives to complete the first crewed lunar orbit in December 1968.
Why you might like it:
Rocket Men
contrasts the lofty achievements of the astronauts with historical events of a turbulent period in U.S. history.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Whitman Public Library
100 Webster Street
Whitman, Massachusetts 02382


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Album : Jaci Velasquez
to the sound
comin' after me
Step back
what is that?
It's a mystery
Is it somethin'
Probably nothing
Still I find a way
to scare my self
'till I remember
this all feels familiar
And I know better.
They are only paper tigers following me
In the wild imagination of the make believe
And there's a fighter a survivor
Arising in me
I'm not afraid of paper tigers
Night brings
creepy things
and I hide away
False fears disappear
In the light of day
The sun is rising
I'm realizing
The only thing to fear is fear itself
Now I'm certain
That my best of burden
Isn't worth the worry
...and I won't run away from Paper Tigers...
Links to this post


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For Wrigley, it's party of a century
AP Sports Writer
CHICAGO — For Wrigley Field, it really was the party of a century.
Exactly 100 years after the Chicago Federals pounded the Kansas City Packers in the first game at Wrigley, the famed ballpark got quite the birthday bash on Wednesday afternoon. Hall of Famers such as Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins and Andre Dawson were on hand, and so were Bears greats Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers.
The Cubs and Diamondbacks went retro, wearing throwback 1914 jerseys, and the famed scoreboard listed Kansas City and Chi-Feds in their place.
Yes, it was quite an afternoon, a day of celebration. A day of reflection, too. The memories, the stories, flowed like runs in a big rally.
"It just gives me goose bumps because I had a chance to play here," Williams said. "I often said this was my playground during the summer for so many years. So I have enjoyed it and I still enjoy it."
The celebration came as Cubs ownership and the neighboring rooftop owners remain in a standstill over proposed renovations. The $500 million project, which includes a giant Jumbotron, is on hold because the Ricketts family wants assurances that it won't be sued over obstructed views.
"You can't ask a team to be competitive and you can't ask people to do things and then tie their hands and their legs," Commissioner Bud Selig said. "It's just wrong. Somebody has to say it so I'm happy to say it."
It's also worth mentioning that the rooftop owners, who charge fans to sit in bleachers atop their buildings, have a contract under which they share 17 percent of their revenues with the Cubs. The Tribune Co., the previous owner, signed it.
"This ownership didn't," Selig said.
He said the treatment the current owners — the Ricketts family — has received is "beyond unfair" and that he will do everything he "possibly can" to help them. He also said the Rickettses have not approached him about moving, that they're committed to renovating Wrigley and staying there.
"They know the right thing to do for this franchise and this sport is to preserve this, just like the Red Sox preserved Fenway," said Selig, who made his first trip to the ballpark in May 1944.
Ushers wore party hats. Fans received birthday cupcakes and throwback jerseys. There was a replica Wrigley Field cake from Carlo's Bakery, setting of the hit TLC show "Cake Boss," near the statue of Banks outside the ballpark. A portion was to be served to guests at the charity event at Chicago's Field Museum.
On his way in from suburban Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Williams thought about all the events besides baseball games that have taken place at Wrigley Field over the years.
The ballpark has hosted everything from boxing to soccer to pro wrestling to the circus to the rodeo to concerts to a Chicago Blackhawks game. There was even this: On back-to-back weekends in January 1944, ski jumpers leapt from scaffolding covered in snow and ice and landed behind second base.
In many ways, Wrigley Field has seen everything but a Cubs championship. Of course, they haven't won one since 1908 — eight years before they started playing at what was then known as Weeghman Park.
Of course, the Bears celebrated a few at Wrigley. They won NFL championship games there in 1933, 1941, 1943 and 1963 before they moved to Soldier Field in 1971.
Williams recalled watching the Bears at Wrigley, back when Sayers and Butkus and Mike Ditka were playing and when George Halas was running the club.


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YIDDISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE (Summer
There are three excellent summer programs for the study of Yiddish language and culture, two in the United States and one in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Yiddish Internship at the National Yiddish Book Center - The National Yiddish Book Center, in Amherst, Massachusetts, is now accepting applications for its summer program. This is a wholly-funded internship to study Yiddish language, literature, history, and culture, and to a explore a research or translation project. Interns work with the Center's collection of over a million Yiddish books. No prior language experience is required. Jewish Studies minor Jeremy Greenberg was an intern in summer 2007 and had a fabulous experience.
Yiddish Summer Program at New York University/YIVO - New York University in concert with YIVO (Yiddish Scientific Institute) offers an intensive Yiddish language and culture program in New York City. This includes "instruction in Yiddish language, and an in-depth exploration of the literature and culture of East European/American Jewry. The core of the program is an intensive language course daily at one of four levels, designed to develop proficiency in speaking, reading and writing, as well as cultural literacy. As an essential complement to the morning course, students are required to attend afternoon Yiddish conversation classes, workshops and lecture series." IC students can apply for academic grants from Jewish Studies (including the Golberstein Jewish Studies Travel-Study Grant) to help to pay for this program.
Summer Program at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute - The Yiddish Vilnius Institute offers an intensive one-month immersion in Yiddish language and culture in Vilnius, Lithuania, once the heartland of Yiddish speaking Ashkenazic Jewry. The program centers on the study of Yiddish language, visits to sites of Jewish life in Vilnius and other parts of Lithuania, public talks, films, and meetings with Jews still resident in Lithuania. In summer 2009 the program lasts from July 26 to August 21. IC students can apply for academic grants from Jewish Studies (including the Golberstein Jewish Studies Travel-Study Grant) to help to pay for this program.
KlezKamp (December)
KlezKamp offers an opportunity every year to study Klezmer music, song, and dance, Yiddish language and literature, and the visual arts. For December, 2007 the theme was "Mame-Loshn: Women in Yiddish Culture." There are scholarships available for people who apply for work-study, and IC students can apply for Jewish Studies Program student grants for additional support. For more information, click on KlezKamp.
KlezKanada (Summer and
Rooted in the Jewish communities of Montreal and Canada, KlezKanada teaches, nurtures and presents the best of Jewish traditional arts and Yiddish/Jewish culture. KlezKanada's programming includes music, dance, drama, visual arts, language and literature, film and other forms of expressive culture. IC students can apply for Jewish Studies Program student grants to help pay for these programs. For more information, click on KlezKanada.
CET ACADEMIC PROGRAMS (Washington, DC-based designer and administrator of educational programs abroad)
Crossroads of Islam, Judaism and Christianity in Avila,
CET Academic Programs offers a unique program of academics, activities and travel to inform and advance the understanding we have of the three cultures of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism within the context of Spain's history, society, arts and literature. As the historical foundation is laid, students apply the lessons learned to the modern context and enhance their learning experience with experiential study trips to cities and villages near Avila, cities in Andalusia and, finally, Morocco. CET is a very experienced travel-study company, and IC students have already benefited from their programs in other parts of Europe. Students who would like to consider this possibility would be eligible to apply for the Golberstein Jewish Studies Travel-Study Grant to help support their study financially. For more information, contact Rebecca Lesses (firstname.lastname@example.com) or CET directly.
Jewish Studies in Prague, Czech Republic
CET Academic Programs offers a wonderful opportunity to study Central European Jewish culture and history in Prague, Czech Republic. The program involves study of the rich history, culture, and literature of Central and Eastern European Jewry through intensive courses as well as travel and hands-on participation in the community. Alumnus Rafi Golberstein studied at this program and gave it rave reviews. Students who would like to consider this possibility would be eligible to apply for the Golberstein Jewish Studies Travel-Study Grant to help support their study financially. For more information, contact Rebecca Lesses (email@example.com) or CET directly.


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The Questa® Formal Verification tool complements simulation-based RTL design verification by analyzing all possible behaviours of the design to detect any reachable error states. This exhaustive analysis ensures that critical control blocks work correctly in all cases and locates design errors that may be missed in simulation.
Questa Formal Verification can be used as soon as the design is complete to debug blocks before integration, and to find potential errors long before simulation test environments are available. Sharing a common language front end with the Questa Simulator and leveraging the integration with the Unified Coverage Database (UCDB), Questa Formal Verification is the perfect tool to accelerate bug detection, error correction and coverage closure.
Questa Formal Verification analyzes the behaviour of the design to identify all design states that are reachable from the initial state. This analysis allows Questa Formal Verification to explore the whole state space in a breadth-first manner, in contrast to the depth-first approach used in simulation.
Questa Formal Verification is therefore able to discover any design errors that can occur, without needing specific stimulus to detect the bug. This ensures that the verified design is bug-free in all legal input scenarios. At the same time, this approach inherently identifies unreachable coverage points, which helps accelerate coverage closure.
Questa Formal Verification provides easy-to-use automatic checking for many common design errors. With Questa Formal Verification, designers can easily check out new code to look for functional issues such as floating or multiply-driven buses, combinational loops, arithmetic errors and initialization problems. Finding and fixing these errors before integrating new code into the design avoids injecting difficult-to-find bugs into the larger system, and accelerates downstream verification. Since these checks are based on exact analysis of the reachable state space, the errors detected are real errors, not the noisy results that are often generated by simple lint checkers.
Questa Formal Verification also supports general assertion-based formal verification to ensure that the design meets its specific functional requirements. With support for PSL, SVA, and OVL, including multi-clocked assertions, Questa Formal Verification easily verifies even very large designs with many assertions. Its multiple high-capacity formal engines cooperate to complete verification faster. Questa Formal Verification is integrated with the Questa Simulator for easy debug of assertion failures.


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Firms are entering the variable annuity space with new product issues—are they crazy? Like a fox, some would say.
On Tuesday, Morningstar released its roundup of all things VA product-related for the first quarter of 2013, and it contained some surprises. The biggest, by far, was Forethought Financial's foray into the market with a new VA issue.
"Forethought Financial issued its first variable annuity contract, the ForeRetirement VA (B-, C-, and L-shares)," Morningstar's John McCarthy, product manager of annuity solutions, wrote in the report. "The fee for the B-share is 1.15%, which includes a 0.50% premium-based charge."
The contract offers a lifetime guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit with an age-banded withdrawal percentage (5% for a 65 year old; 4.5% in the joint-life version) and two types of step-ups: a highest anniversary (based on highest daily value) and a 6% fixed annual step-up for 10 years, he explained. The rider fee is 1.25%. There is also a second lifetime GMWB with similar withdrawal and step-up features and a highest anniversary (based on highest annual value) step-up for a fee of 1.05%.
He added that the first quarter saw a number of other changes in both the distribution channel and among variable annuity providers. SunLife sold its U.S. variable annuity business to Delaware Life Holdings, owned by Guggenheim Partners. He also noted Hartford's move to reduce its contract liability with a buyout offer.
Other highlights from the quarter include:
- Carriers filed 97 annuity product changes in the first quarter of 2013, a significant jump from the 59 during the same period in 2012, and on par with the 101 filings in the fourth quarter of 2012.
- Overall product development activity was healthy, as carriers continue to adjust benefit levels and seek to reduce volatility on the subaccount side.
- Prudential, AXA Equitable, and SunAmerica/American General filed the most changes in the first quarter of 2013.
- New benefits made up the largest group of filed changes in the first quarter, followed by VA product revisions. VA new contracts and VA benefits closed tied for third place.
"Over all, product development activity was robust," McCarthy wrote. "Carriers continue to adjust benefit levels down. In addition, activity continued on the subaccount side to reduce volatility in investment offerings."
Moshe Milevsky asks why Chileans buy so many annuities on AdvisorOne.


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If you stroll the sidewalk along Main Street in Riverhead then you've probably noticed all the "Business Coming Soon" or "Under Construction" signs in the windows. It has been a while since Main Street has looked this alive, the thriving outlets and mega stores on County Route 58 have diverted much of the shopping traffic that once ran through this part of town.
Main Street had not been the same after the closing of Sears and the popular Swezey's, as tenants were unable to fill the vacancy left by these department stores.
There is also considerable construction under way on County Route 58, the other main road in Riverhead. However, many locals will tell you, there's only one main road in town. Main Street.
The downtown, sitting pretty with a scenic waterfront along the Peconic River, between the forks of Long Island's East End, is a hub of courthouses, amiable restaurants, new and old hotels, and historic buildings, as well as a hub for future mom-and pop-stores.
"The town is reinventing itself," said Chris Kempner, Riverhead Town's Community Development Director, in a phone interview. "It's totally a new paradigm down here…Riverhead is defining itself now with its own personality."
"The heart of the town is downtown," Edwin Fishel Tuccio, owner of Tweed's Restaurant and Bison Bar on Main Street, told me.
There are several new businesses anticipating opening before this summer, such as Raphael's Famous Italian Ice, Blue Duck Bakery, and a three-story bookstore, along with the businesses, hotels, and restaurants that opened up in the last year such as, Cody's BBQ & Grill, the Riverhead Project (restaurant), Hyatt Place Long Island/East End and the Red Collection—a furniture and antique store. The historic Suffolk Theater's renovation is set to be complete by this upcoming fall.
"We are rebuilding Main Street the old-fashioned way: block-by-block, store-by-store," informs Sean M. Walter, Riverhead Town Supervisor, in an interview last June with The Wall Street Journal.
Walter has been trying to get a movie theater company to build a cinema on Main Street. Although past talks and negotiations haven't come to fruition, the town supervisor has extended his mission to numerous other movie theater companies.
"Supervisor Walter has been actively pursuing a movie theater for some time now," says Kempner. "He'll get it soon."
For Ivan Albert, the owner of the new Raphael's Famous Italian Ices on Main Street, the experience and the local support has been grand. "For us, it has been overwhelmingly great," he said in an interview by phone. This isn't Albert's first store; he owns two others in Port Jefferson and Greenport, but feels that the Riverhead community is blossoming and unlike any other local community. "They want Main Street back, they want their town back," he says. Albert describes his ice cream shop as another block in the rebuilding process, "I want to be a part of this," he adds.
When deciding where to build his frozen ice cream shop Albert received many opinions suggesting he build his shop on County Route 58, but he never considered it much, as he had his sights on Main Street. "I want to be the town ice cream shop…I want to be a part of that revitalization."
The Riverhead Town Board is adamantly dedicated to revitalizing Main Street. The town has taken great measures to build up the riverfront with the revitalization to Grangebel Park. The rebuilding Main Street plan also includes bringing more riverfront residences downtown with the Summerwind Project. The Summerwind Project is a building on Peconic Avenue that will feature 52 units of workforce housing, with a ground floor designated for retail rental, bringing in more residences and businesses.
"This is pretty exciting," says Kempner, referring to the Summerwind Project, "it is a new riverside."
The older town board, which supported the expansion on County Route 58, is gone. New members are looking to revitalize what Riverhead already has. The town has grown extensively over the last two decades, as the town population is now over 33,500, according to the 2010 census.
"For almost seven years I was the lone bison—so to speak—on East Main Street, but perseverance has paid off," says Tuccio. Small, personalized local businesses are coming back to Riverhead and the East End.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would have a Hyatt Hotel, see the Suffolk Theater renovated, witness the opening of eight more restaurants, the creation of a world class aquarium, the energy is palatable," continues Tuccio.
As in its past, Downtown Riverhead is abuzz with its new changes and new neighbors. "I think they (the town board) owe it to the town—to the community—to bring back our town," Tuccio adds.
Other local owners are just as optimistic about the future.
"We're here to stay," exclaims Albert.
The Town Board deserves a pat on the back for all their hard work.